Sanskrit
निमित्तानि च पश्यामि विपरीतानि केशव । न च श्रेयोऽनुपश्यामि हत्वा स्वजनमाहवे ॥
nimittāni ca paśyāmi viparītāni keśava na ca śreyo'nupaśyāmi hatvā svajanam āhave
Translation
And I see adverse omens, O Keshava. Nor do I foresee any advantage from slaying kinsmen in battle.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The physical breakdown of verses 29–30 turns here into the beginning of an actual argument: bad omens, and no foreseeable good from killing kinsmen. It’s Arjuna’s first explicit claim, opening a case he’ll build across the rest of the chapter — one Krishna will spend the whole of Chapter 2 answering.
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Word by word
- nimittāniनिमित्तानि
- omens
- ca paśyāmiच पश्यामि
- and I see
- viparītāniविपरीतानि
- adverse, inverted
- keśavaकेशव
- O Keśava
- na ca śreyo'nupaśyāmiन च श्रेयोऽनुपश्यामि
- nor do I foresee any good
- hatvāहत्वा
- having killed
- svajanamस्वजनं
- my own people
- āhaveआहवे
- in battle
Commentary
Site Commentary
Notice the two claims share a single breath without being distinguished: an omen (a supernatural signal) and a cost-benefit judgment (no foreseeable good) are offered as equally valid support for the same conclusion. It’s a common move under pressure — reaching for whatever evidence is at hand rather than sorting which evidence is actually load-bearing.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
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Lessons
Personal
- When you're building a case for a hard decision, check whether you're mixing genuinely different kinds of evidence — a gut feeling and an actual cost-benefit judgment — as if they carry equal weight; they might both point the same way without being equally reliable.
Professional
- When justifying a recommendation, separate your intuition-based signals from your actual data-based reasoning before presenting them — stakeholders can usually tell when a gut feeling is being dressed up as an analytical conclusion.
Family & Social
- When you're trying to convince family of something, notice if you're blending a feeling ("something's off about this") with an actual reasoned argument as though they're the same kind of proof — naming which is which makes your case more honest, even if less immediately persuasive.
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